Gujarat government turns down DG Vanzara’s resignation

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Wednesday said that it has not accepted the resignation of fake encounter cases accused IPS officer D G Vanzara, who quit after slamming Chief Minister Narendra Modi and accusing his government of failing to protect its "loyal soldiers".

The resignation tendered by DG Vanzara has not been accepted," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S K Nanda said. No reasons were forthcoming for not accepting the resignation of the controversial 1987 batch IPS officer.

Though Nanda did not assign any reason for not accepting Vanzara's papers, the Gujarat government's decision was ostensibly influenced by the guidelines issued by DoPT in respect of resignation tendered by officers of All India Services.

The guidelines for processing the resignation issued by the Department of Personnel and Training to all states on August 16, 2011, says, “Normally, as members of service are placed under suspension only in cases of grave delinquency, it would not be correct to accept a resignation of a member of service under suspension."

The guidelines also provide for vigilance clearance before the resignation is forwarded by the state to the competent authority at the Centre for acceptance. In case of IPS officers, the Minister in charge of Ministry of Home Affairs is the competent authority.

Vanzara (59), a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) rank officer considered close to Modi, had resigned from service accusing the Gujarat government of failing to protect police officers who fought against "Pakistan-inspired terrorism".

While maintaining that those officers, several of whom are in jail for alleged involvement in staged encounters, had "simply implemented the conscious policy" of the government, Vanzara had said the place of the government "should either be in Taloja central prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad."

Vanzara is lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail since 2007 after his arrest in connection with alleged fake encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh. He was subsequently made prime accused in the alleged staged encounter deaths of Sohrabuddin's associate Tulsiram Prajapati, Mumbai resident Ishrat Jahan and three others.

After all these encounters police had claimed those killed were terrorists on a mission to assassinate Modi.